System for interactive marketing in reconfigurable vendor space

ABSTRACT

A system of the present invention includes a shared commercial region for use by a plurality of tenant vendors, providing both a virtual and tangible experience regarding products of the tenant vendors. The system can also include a common area of the shared commercial region, populated by interaction terminals and goods linked to product information pages available through the interaction terminals or mobile devices. Through various embodiments, tenant vendors may be efficiently represented within a shared commercial region in high-cost/rent locations and geographically diverse venues, and in locations not normally suited for a small vendor to establish a sales presence. Also provided are systems for completing purchases on an immediate or deferred basis, and systems to monitor and analyze customer traffic and behaviors.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation in-part of U.S. Non-Provisionalpatent application Ser. No. 15/923,483 (the '483 application) filed Mar.16, 2018. This application is also a continuation in-part of U.S.Non-Provisional patent application Ser. No. 15/709,323 (the '323application) filed Sep. 19, 2017, which is a non-provisional patentapplication of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/417,139 (the'139 application) filed Nov. 3, 2016, and U.S. Provisional PatentApplication No. 62/421,960 (the '960 application) filed Nov. 14, 2016.This is application also claims the benefit and priority of the '139application, the '960 application. The entirety of each of the '323application, the '139 application, the '960 application, and the '483application is herein fully incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND Field

There is provided a system providing a shared commercial region for oneor more tenant vendors to engage prospective customers in commerce. Forexample, certain malls or similar shopping centers may benefit from asystem for interactive marketing in a reconfigurable vendor space, wherevendors may present both a virtual and physical presence, includingpresentation of goods for inspection by prospective customers that arelinked to online product information served by vendors and managed by ahost.

Description of the Related Art

Shopping malls are popular venues for merchandisers to sell their goodsand services. For a number of reasons, including an attractive mix ofshopping mall tenants, the better shopping malls tend to have somethingfor everyone, and as a result, such shopping malls tend to havesignificant customer volume. High customer volume is desirable on aregular and consistent basis not only from the perspective of theshopping mall owner but also from the perspective of the shopping malltenants.

Such a situation creates high demand for tenant spaces in the bettershopping malls, the result of which is competition for such spaces.Further, the initial costs for lease and buildout of sales floor areascan be a substantial barrier to entry for smaller and newer vendors, yeta more engaging experience is needed than a simple walk-up cart used bymany such vendors in a mall environment. Consequently, there are manyvendors that would like to have tenant space in the better shoppingmalls, but simply cannot afford to do so given the competitiveenvironment for such attractive shopping mall spaces.

SUMMARY

As set forth in more detail below, in various embodiments there isprovided, a system that includes a shared commercial region for one ormore tenant vendors to engage consumers in commerce. The sharedcommercial region, and indeed, a larger system for providing areconfigurable retail presence are provided by an entity (also knownherein as a “host”) that operates the shared commercial regions, andprovides the necessary infrastructure and support to allow a pluralityof tenant vendors to obtain a marketing presence within the sharedcommercial regions. In a preferred embodiment, there is provided withinthe shared commercial region a housing including features that mayprovide for a multisensory merchandising experience. The system includesa common shared interior space area of the shared commercial region, andoptionally, the offerings being provided by the tenant vendors arecurated by a person who may provide guidance and assistance to customerswho wish to know more about the products and/or services of the tenantvendors. The shared interior space can be configured to permitpedestrian travel to and among one or more customer interactionterminals, and to approach and interact with product samples for goodsassociated with tenant vendors who have established a presence withinthe shared commercial region. Each of the interaction terminals iscapable of accessing any of the tenant vendors' information, and forguiding the customer to interact with the provided product samples. Asused herein, collectively, products, goods and/or services can bereferred to simply as “goods.”

In one embodiment, there is provided a system, comprising: acommunication gateway within a shared commercial region, the gatewaycommunicatively coupled to a local network and at least one host server,the host server providing an interface for presenting informationrelating to one or more tenant vendors of the shared commercial region;a plurality of interaction terminals communicatively coupled to thecommunication gateway through the local network, each of the pluralityof terminals configured to allow interaction with one or more websiteshosted by at least one of the tenant vendors of the shared commercialregion; and a common area of the shared commercial region. In suchembodiments, the common area is configured to permit pedestrian travelamong the plurality of interaction terminals, and the common area isconfigured to present one or more physical representations of goodsoffered by a vendor tenant. In certain embodiments, each of theinteraction terminals is configured to present product information froma selected tenant vendor, and to prompt a customer to interact with theone or more physical representations of goods corresponding to theselected tenant vendor's product information. In this manner, customersentering the shared commercial region can freely roam between productsand interaction terminals, and can quickly gain information about aparticular product.

Interaction terminals may comprise any device suitable for customerbrowsing, more particularly, for browsing the products of the tenantvendors that are represented by the shared commercial region (and thosetenant vendors who have a relationship with the hosting company, even ifthey do not have a presence within the shared commercial region). In oneembodiment, interaction terminals further include: a user interfacecomprising a display, a speaker, and user input device, the user inputdevice comprising one or more of a touch screen, a mouse, a camera, atouch tablet, one or more buttons, a microphone, and NFC component(e.g., a near-field communication device as defined in, for example, ISO15693, ISO/IEC 18092, or ISO/IEC 14443, the contents all of which areincorporated by reference herein for all purposes), an RFID component(e.g., a radio-frequency identification device as defined in one or moreof ISO/IEC 15693, ISO/IEC 18000, ISO/IEC 18092, the contents all ofwhich are incorporated by reference herein for all purposes), and akeyboard, and a processor coupled to the user interface, a devicecommunication interface coupled to the local network, and a memory.Further, the memory of the interaction terminal is configured to storeinstructions that when executed by the processor, perform the functionsof: receiving, through the device communication interface, productinformation provided by one or more of the tenant vendors; displaying,through the user interface, the product information corresponding togoods offered by the selected tenant vendor; prompting the customer toselect a product offered by the selected tenant vendor; determining,from an indicia provided by the host server, that a physicalrepresentation of the goods offered by the selected tenant vendor areavailable for inspection by the customer in the shared commercialregion; and providing instructions regarding location of the goodsoffered by the selected tenant vendor in the shared commercial region.The interaction terminals may provide guided prompts to customers, andin an embodiment, the memory is configured to store instructions thatwhen executed by the processor, perform the functions of: prompting thecustomer to enter a product identifier corresponding to goods locatedwithin the shared commercial space; and displaying, through the userinterface, product information corresponding to goods offered by theselected tenant vendor. The interaction terminals also encouragecustomers to engage in the tangible multisensory experience that anonline-only shopping experience cannot provide; for example, in oneembodiment, the interaction terminals are configured to prompt thecustomer to engage in a multisensory experience including one of: atactile experience of the goods; an olfactory experience of the goods;an audio experience of the goods; a video experience of the goods; and ataste experience of the goods.

The shared commercial space is equipped with a networking capability to,among other things, provide data and connectivity between the componentsin the shared commercial space and to outside web services through anexternal network. In one embodiment, the local network comprises a wirednetwork comprising one of Ethernet network or an IEEE 802.3 network. Thelocal network may also contain a wireless network interface coupled tothe communications gateway, wherein the wireless network is configuredwith one or more of an ISO 14443 protocol, an ISO 18000-6 protocol, aBluetooth protocol, a Zigbee protocol, a Wibree protocol, a Wi-Fiprotocol, an IEEE 802.15 protocol, an IEEE 802.11 protocol, an IEEE802.16 protocol, an ultra-wideband (UWB) protocol; and an IrDA protocol(in regards to the aforementioned standards, all documents are fullyincorporated by reference herein for all purposes). In variousembodiments, a combination of wired and wireless approaches are utilizedto provide data connectivity to all components of the shared commercialregion, and protocols other than those explicitly listed may be utilizedto provide the desired network performance. A system embodiment alsoprovides that the communications gateway comprises one or more of arouter or a switch communicatively connected to an external network andthe local network.

The communication gateway provides connectivity to external networks(including, but not limited to the Internet), and provides an interfaceto external servers and websites. In one embodiment, one or more tenantvendor servers are communicatively coupled to the communications gatewaythrough the external network, and the product information correspondingto goods offered by the selected tenant vendor are provided to theinteraction terminals though the communications gateway. In this way,tenant vendors may update their product information and provide it, ondemand, to customers who are browsing their products in the sharedcommercial region. In one embodiment, one or more tenant vendor serversare communicatively coupled to at least one of the plurality ofinteraction terminals, and the one or more tenant vendor servers presentthe product information corresponding to goods offered by the selectedtenant vendor to the interaction terminals. Alternatively, the one ormore tenant vendor servers may be communicatively coupled to the hostserver, the one or more tenant vendor servers present the productinformation corresponding to goods offered by the selected tenant vendorto the host server, and the host server presents, through the localnetwork, the product information to one of the plurality of interactionterminals.

Goods (and as mentioned above, information regarding services) providedby tenant vendors may be provided on display within (or nearby) theshared commercial region. In one embodiment, an interior space of theshared commercial region comprises a display fixture configured todisplay one or more goods corresponding to a tenant vendor. In variousembodiments, the display fixture is configured to exhibit goods throughone or more of: a shelf unit; a movable rack; a locking cabinet withtransparent door; a deployable shelf configured to be lowered from aceiling of the shared commercial region; a deployable shelf configuredto be raised from a floor of the shared commercial region; a deployabledrawer configured to slide from an enclosed cabinet; a motor-drivenrotatable column display; and combinations thereof.

To assist customers with identifying which goods correspond to productinformation being provided in an interaction terminal, embodiments ofthe present invention provide a variety of visual indicia and prompts torelate the goods on display in the shared commercial region (e.g., thesample goods) to product information being presented in the interactionterminals. In one embodiment, a visual indicia is provided in proximityto goods displayed on the display fixture, the indicia comprising oneof: a descriptive text label, identifying a name of the goods and aproduct number corresponding to a product number for the associatedtenant vendor; a scanable RFID tag containing a unique identifier forthe displayed goods; an NFC tag containing a unique identifier for thedisplayed goods; a QR code (e.g., a “Quick Response” barcode, oneversion of which is set forth in ISO/IEC 18004, the contents of whichare fully incorporated by reference herein for all purposes) encodedwith a website link corresponding to a product information page for thegoods provided by the associated tenant vendor; a controllable lightingelement coupled to a lighting controller, the lighting controllercoupled to the local network, wherein the lighting element isilluminated by the lighting controller when a corresponding productinformation page is selected on an interaction terminal by a customer; abutton coupled to the local network, wherein upon a customer actuatingthe button a corresponding product information page is displayed on oneof the interaction terminals. The visual indicia may also include acolored highlight being displayed on the display terminal in proximityto the product being displayed and a colored light being illuminated inproximity to the goods on display.

The host, or entity that operates the shared commercial region, mayoperate a remote host server (such as one operated in a cloud-basedenvironment) that provides data to each shared commercial region, tracksthe products on display in the shared commercial regions, and providesthe main hosting page that presents all tenant vendors who have engagedthe host to market their goods, among other functions. In oneembodiment, the host server further comprises a processor, a memorycommunicatively coupled to the processor, a database communicativelycoupled to the processor, and a communication interface coupled to theprocessor and to the communication gateway of the shared commercialregion through an external network; and wherein: the database of thehost server is configured to store: an inventory of goods correspondingto a selected tenant vendor; a location where the goods may be foundwithin a particular shared commercial region; and a linking identifieruniquely associating the goods with respective product information fromthe respective corresponding tenant vendors.

As will be discussed below, the host may operate a plurality of sharedcommercial regions, and each may be located in proximity to one another,or geographically distributed over any desired distance. For example,the host may operate different shared commercial regions in differentmalls around the world, each of which may have some, all, or none of thetenant vendors of the other shared commercial spaces. Tenant vendors maychoose to be present within a particular location of a shared commercialregion, and may reconfigure their product offerings, and locationsdesired for presence within a shared commercial region. Further, productinformation for tenant vendors may be available from the host's ownwebsite regardless of location. Accordingly, in one embodiment, a systemfurther comprises a second shared commercial region, communicativelycoupled to the host server through a second communications gateway, andwherein: the host server maintains, in host server database, ageographically-oriented list of goods available by the tenant vendors ina particular shared commercial region; and upon being queried aboutavailability of goods, provides an indicia of where such goods may beavailable for inspection by a customer.

An embodiment of the present invention also includes a local servercommunicatively coupled to the communication gateway, the local servercomprising a processor, a memory coupled to the processor, a databasecoupled to the processor, and a communication interface coupled to theprocessor. The local server may be utilized for any desired purpose,such as operating local displays, tracking customer traffic, and otherfunctions. An additional embodiment of a system of the present inventionincludes a media player coupled to the local network and to an externaldisplay, wherein the media player is further configured to displaycontent stored within the media player on the display for viewing bycustomers; and wherein the display is viewable by customers locatedoutside of but in proximity to the shared commercial region. In anembodiment, the content is transferred to the media player through thenetwork interface, and wherein the content is provided by one of: thehost server through the communications gateway; and a local servercoupled to the media player through the local network.

Interaction terminals located in the shared commercial region are notthe only way customers may interact; in one embodiment, the externalareas of the shared commercial region are equipped with interactivedisplays, such as touch displays, that allow customers to walk up to theoutside of the shared commercial region and interact without needing togo inside. In one example, the system provides an external interactiondisplay comprising: a user interface comprising an externally-orienteddisplay, a speaker, and user input device, the user input devicecomprising one or more of a touch screen in proximity to theexternally-oriented display, a mouse, a camera, a touch tablet, one ormore buttons, a microphone, and NFC component, an RFID component, and akeyboard; and a processor coupled to the user interface, a devicecommunication interface coupled to the local network, and a memory;wherein the memory stores instructions that when executed by theprocessor of the external interaction display performs the functions of:displaying product information content to a customer located outside ofthe shared commercial region; prompting the customer located outside ofthe facility to engage in the user interface to view the productinformation content; and prompting the customer located outside of thefacility that goods corresponding to the product information content areavailable in one of: a location inside of the shared commercial region;a fixture located outside of the shared commercial region; or areavailable for purchase through a vending apparatus coupled to theprocessor.

The interaction terminals, in various embodiments, may also be used toinitiate purchases, or to defer purchases to a different time by sendinginformation allowing the customer to easily complete a transaction awayfrom the shared commercial region at any desired time. One embodimentprovides for accepting input by a customer through one of theinteraction terminals comprising a request to purchase the goods; anddirecting the customer to a tenant vendor's website order processingwebpage hosted by a tenant vendor server coupled to the sharedcommercial region through an external network; whereupon the customermay complete a transaction to purchase the goods through the tenantvendor's website. Yet another embodiment provides for accepting input bya customer through one of the interaction terminals comprising a requestto purchase the goods; and prompting the customer to enter one of anemail address or a phone number corresponding to the customer's mobiledevice; and sending a deferred purchase link to one of the customer'semail address or mobile phone.

Embodiments of the present invention also provide assistance with orderfulfillment. In one embodiment, a vending machine is configured toprovide gift cards corresponding to a plurality of the respective tenantvendors, and this vending machine may be located inside the sharedcommercial region, installed in an exterior wall of the sharedcommercial region, located nearby the shared commercial region, orsituated at a remote location. Customers may also be provided optionsfor order fulfillment. For example, an embodiment provides a message tothe customer indicating the goods are available for receipt at one of: alocal locker area; a vending machine in proximity to the sharedcommercial region; a merchant, the merchant's identifying informationand address provided to the customer; and a mail order delivery option.

In various embodiments, customers may complete point of saletransactions directly with the interaction terminals. One embodimentallows the customer to complete a point of sale transaction at theinteraction terminal by providing one of: credit card identifyinginformation; a mobile device payment token; information corresponding tothe customer's account at an online payment service; an RFID paymenttoken; an NFC payment token; or combinations thereof.

A variety of sensors may be employed in the shared commercial region,for security but also for tracking customer traffic and access patternsin and near the shared commercial region. One embodiment provides, as anaspect of the present system, one or more sensors comprising at leastone of a digital camera and a microphone, the one or more sensorscommunicatively coupled to a local server for monitoring prospectivecustomer traffic, and wherein the local server is configured to trackand monitor at least one of: interaction time spent by customersinteracting with the goods; dwell time of customers while browsing thegoods; initial customer interaction with the shared commercial space,particularly in regard to whether the customer initially visited aninteraction terminal or goods; customer transition patterns betweenparticular goods and the display terminal; goods that were frequentlyinteracted with by customers; goods that were infrequently interactedwith by customers; goods that were featured for particular customerinterest; time of day that a particular type of goods were interactedwith by customers; characteristics of customers interacting withdisplayed goods; and traffic analysis in proximity to external displaysto determine likelihood of passers-by being interested in goods ondisplay in the shared commercial region.

Mobile devices, especially those of customers visiting the sharedcommercial region, may be used in place of interaction terminals or in amanner complementary to the operation of the interaction terminals.Accordingly, an embodiment provides, an interface through the localnetwork to a mobile device, the mobile device configured with an appproviding functionality to allow the customer to view productinformation for goods being marketed in the shared commercial area, andrequest purchase of the goods through the mobile device. The app may beprovided through usual application sales stores for popular mobiledevices, and local signage in the shared commercial region may encouragecustomers to download and install the app to enhance their browsing andshopping experience in the shared commercial regions. Further, afterinstalling the app and granting any necessary permissions, customerscould be subsequently contacted to complete pending purchases or toinform the customers of future sales or new vendors coming to the sharedcommercial regions. The shared commercial regions can be located in anydesired area, such as in one of: a store area of a mall or shoppingcenter; an open area within a communal walking area of a mall; within alarge retail store; or within a portable and deployable vehicle.

Beneficial effects of the embodiments of the present invention arenumerous, and may include providing a market presence to vendors whowould not have the desire or capability (financially or otherwise) toset up a sales operation in an environment such as a mall, or ingeographically diverse locations. Further systems of the presentinvention utilize a unique architecture that improves upon previousimplementations to allow a scalable architecture to market multiplevendors and tie online content for each of such vendors to physicalproducts at designated locations. Further, the accompanying drawings,which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification,illustrate several embodiments of the invention and together with thedescription, serve to explain the principles of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For proper understanding of the invention, reference should be made tothe accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram showing an overview of aspects of thepresent invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates a partial external perspective view of a housingembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates a reverse partial external perspective view of thehousing as shown in FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 illustrates another alternative partial external view of thehousing as shown in FIG. 2.

FIG. 5 illustrates a partial internal view of the housing illustrated inFIG. 2, showing a shared internal space (with fixtures removed forclarity).

FIG. 6 illustrates a partial internal view of the housing illustrated inFIG. 2, showing fixtures that may be used to display goods nearby theinteraction terminals.

FIG. 7A shows a plan view of one possible internal arrangement of ashared commercial region.

FIG. 7B shows another plan view of a possible internal arrangement of ashared commercial region.

FIG. 8 shows an entry point flow diagram for various use scenarios ofsystems of the present invention.

FIG. 9 illustrates a flow diagram for a process of the presentinvention.

FIG. 10 illustrates example windows for a deferred purchase optionpresented to a customer on an interaction terminal.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

There are provided systems and methods to provide a configurablepresence in a shopping space (such as a mall) for vendors who normallyare not present within such venues. Embodiments of the present inventionprovide alternative methods for vendors to access consumers at aphysical location, and optionally have such consumers engageinteractively with the vendors' products in a location that does notrequire the expensive refurbishing of a rented store location nor theattendant costs to lease such spaces. Thus, certain embodiments of thepresent invention relate to a system for interactive marketing in areconfigurable vendor space. The system can be variously embodied, withthe following providing some illustrative examples.

The system can include a plurality of tenant presences in a sharedcommercial region; the presences are virtual, presented throughinteractive terminals, as well as physical, through sample goods andmerchandise available for customer interaction. The commercial regioncan be located in a store area of a mall or any other area. For example,a defined area of a mall, such as an area usually occupied by a singlestore, may serve as the commercial region. This area can be referred toas a storefront. Another option is to use a kiosk or cluster of kiosksin an open area of a mall or other shopping center. Additionalillustrative embodiments are discussed below.

FIG. 1 illustrates a system overview of the present invention and blockdiagram form, particularly showing electronically interfaced components.Shared commercial region 100A is but one of a possible plurality ofshared commercial regions 100A, 100B, 100C, that may be co-located orgeographically removed from one another. Each shared commercial region100A, 100B, 100C, may comprise a shared commercial region such as thoseillustrated in FIGS. 2 through 7B (see, e.g., reference numeral 100).Each shared commercial region 100A includes a communication gateway 66,which, in some embodiments, may include one of a switch or a router. Inalternative embodiments, the communications gateway 66 may comprise adirect connection to a remote server or network without a switch orrouter within the shared commercial region 100A. The communicationgateway is coupled to a local network 72, which may be implemented in anumber of wired or wireless protocols, for example a wired Ethernetimplementation, or a wireless Wi-Fi implementation. The sharedcommercial region includes a plurality of interaction terminals 110,each of which may operate individually to provide product information tocustomers who have entered the shared commercial region. The interactiveterminals 110 may comprise any type of computing device with aconvenient user interface, such as a touch screen or a computer tabletthat is interfaced through the local network 72 to the communicationgateway 66. In one embodiment, a wireless network interface 70, such asa wireless hotspot, provides wireless conductivity to devices withinrange of the shared commercial region, and Wi-Fi is a preferredembodiment. Both devices within the shared commercial region 100A, andmobile devices brought by customers to the shared commercial region mayinterface with the wireless local network 72. In another embodiment,interactive terminals 110 may be connected to network 74 through awireless communications protocol, such as by a cellular connectionprovided by a wireless transceiver within the interactive terminals 110communicatively coupled to a mobile service operator, who, in turn,provides connectivity to network 74. Also provided in the sharedcommercial region 100A, are externally-facing displays 120 that may beviewed by customers from outside the shared commercial region 100A.Interfaced to the displays 120, are also media players 120A that providecontent for display. Displays 120 may also be oriented in a manner sothat customers inside the shared commercial region may be able to viewthe content as well as customers located outside of the sharedcommercial region. Content for the media players 120A is relayed throughlocal network 72, from either the local server 75, or externally fromthe host server 80 via the network 74 to the communication gateway 66.Also provided in the shared commercial region 100A is a lightinginterface 410A, that optionally provides prompted guidance to indicatespecific goods on fixture units that may correspond to products beingviewed by a consumer on interaction terminals 110. Shared commercialregions 100B and 100C may comprise a similar configuration of componentsto those illustrated in regard to shared commercial region 100A, but areillustrated without such components for clarity of viewing. The hostserver 80 is a remotely implemented server, such as a cloud-basedserver, that maintains the configuration of goods and marketed productsin each respective shared commercial region. The remote host server 80also provides the top-level entry point for customers as illustrated inthe master landing page 54 in FIG. 8. This unified interface allows aconsumer to browse multiple vendors from a single web interface, proceedto one tenant vendor's product offerings, interact with goods that suchtenant vendor may have provided for interaction in the shared commercialregion, and once the customer has viewed the relevant productinformation, the customer may initiate a transaction to purchase theitem at the present time or may request a link for execution of thepurchase at a future date as described more completely in regard to FIG.10. Also shown in FIG. 1 are tenant vendor servers 82A, 82B and 82N(corresponding to any desired number of tenant vendor servers). In oneembodiment, the tenant vendor servers provide, through the network 74,the product information that is viewed by customers on the interactionterminals 110. Thus, tenant vendors are free to modify and customize thecontent of their websites as product updates occur, and as productreviews are updated. The tenant vendors may also work with the host ofthe shared commercial regions to modify an inventory of goods exhibitedfor inspection by customers when visiting particular shared commercialregion facilities. The host server 80 may act as a coordination facilityto manage the inventory of goods being demonstrated in each respectiveshared commercial region, and manage the provision of data from tenantvendor websites to the shared commercial regions.

FIG. 2 illustrates one embodiment of the present invention in the formof a housing 105 implemented in a shared commercial region 100.Alternate partial exterior views of the housing 105 are shown in FIGS.3-4, and a partial interior view of the housing 105, showing the sharedinterior space 104, is provided in FIGS. 5 and 6. One exemplary view ofan interior space 104 of the shared commercial region with variousfixtures installed may be seen in FIG. 6. The shared interior space 104as shown in FIG. 5 is generally defined by the interior space of thehousing 105 of the shared commercial region 100 shown in FIGS. 2-4. Thehousing 105 may include one or more external display panels 120 that maycomprise a video screen or backlit static screen to advertise samplecontent of tenant vendors operating within the shared interior space104. The display panels 120 may provide video content in addition toaudio content to capture the attention of passers-by, and in oneembodiment, may have a touch screen input capability to interact withconsumers who desire more information before entering. The housing 105may include a plurality of interaction terminals 110 attached to columns111 through fixtures 112. The interaction terminals 110 provide acustomer interface in which one or more vendors may show their goodsand/or services to prospective customers. Interactive displays mayinclude a processor, a memory communicatively coupled to the processor,a user interface communicatively coupled to the processor and includingone or more of a display, a touch screen, a keyboard, a mouse, a touchpad, a camera, a microphone, a printer, an NFC terminal such as a deviceconfigured to interact with NFC-compatible devices, and wired andwireless communications capabilities. The displays 110 may similarlyprovide the customers with opportunities to peruse the product orservice offerings of a tenant vendor and directly (or through a deferredapproach) purchase such goods from the tenant vendor. In one embodiment,interaction terminals 110 comprise a touch-sensitive display, and in afurther embodiment, may include an Apple® iPad, Android-based tablet,Microsoft® Surface tablet, or other interactive computing tablet ordevice. The housing 105 provides for interaction between a customer andphysical product samples made available by the tenant vendor fortouching, hearing, tasting, feeling, smelling or otherwise experiencingin person. It is envisioned in various embodiments that only a samplingof products are made available for physical interaction by customers,but a tenant vendor may offer many products for review virtually throughinteraction terminals 110. The interaction terminals 110 as shown inFIGS. 2-6 are attached to columns 111 through fixtures 112. Fixtures 112and columns 111 provide physical support and customer-accessiblepresentation of the display devices 110, and provide internalconnections for routing of cabling for data provisioning, such asthrough an Ethernet cable or other networking cable, and power providedto the displays 110. Such cables may be routed upwards through an innercavity (not shown) of columns 111 through inner cavity (not shown) ofhorizontal beams 103 or under floor 102 for connection to regulatedpower supplies, utilities, communication gateways, routers, bridges, anintermediate distribution frame, a main distribution frame, or serversfor provisioning of data. In addition to or in replacement for wireddata connections to the interaction terminals 110, wireless connectionsmay be provided from a server in the form of wireless protocols such asWi-Fi or Bluetooth, or other device networking protocols such as Wibreeor ZigBee. Through such wired or wireless data provisioning connections,tenant vendors may provide service of product offerings, customerinterface, and purchase completion (or purchase deferment, as isexplained further below). The housing 110 further includes a pluralityof entryways 108 for customer ingress and egress, and in the illustratedembodiment, the entryways 108 further comprise closable and lockabledoors 109 (shown as slidably-closable barn-style doors). In a preferredembodiment, the housing comprises four walls enclosing a shared interiorspace 104, the walls comprising any desired combination of solidconstruction, opaque construction, translucent construction ortransparent glass 106, which is further illustrated in FIG. 5.

The shared interior space 104 can include one or more fixturesdisplaying product samples provided by tenant vendors in a mannerinviting customers to physically engage with such products. In oneembodiment, when a customer is viewing a particular item from theinteraction terminal 110, which the vendor has provided for engagementwithin the shared interior space 104, the interaction terminal 110provides encouragement (and optionally, directional locationinformation) for the customer to engage physically with the on-siteproduct sample. In a further embodiment, a light illuminates a productthat is being shown on an interaction terminal 110, and thus, thecustomer may be guided to the product to determine which product iscurrently being displayed on the display terminal. In yet anotherembodiment, a colored light or other indicia is illuminated by theproduct, and a corresponding color highlight is rendered around thecorresponding product on the interaction terminal 110 to reinforce thelink between the on-line product and the on-premises product sample. Inanother alternate embodiment, touch sensors including buttons, pressuresensitive pads, pressure switches, or the like are located in proximityto product samples on the fixtures, and customer interaction triggers adisplay terminal to automatically present the tenant-vendor's productfor perusal (thus customers may initiate interaction with any tenantvendor through first interacting with a product and then being guided toan interaction terminal 110). Further embodiments include movable racksconfigured to display a plurality of different goods of the respectivetenant vendors. For example, a movable rack may be a rack such as isused in dry cleaning establishments, whereby clothing can be conveyedfrom a storage area to a display area. Alternatively, the rack may be aconveyor belt, such as used in a kaiten sushi restaurant, whereby thegoods are paraded past the potential customers, and the customers caneasily remove the goods from the belt. Other movable racks are alsopermitted. For example, movable racks may slide down from the ceiling ormay rise up from the floor. The movable racks may thus be configured topermit multiple tenant vendors to share the same tenant space such ashshared interior space 104. In yet another embodiment, when a customerselects a product from an interaction terminal 110 for perusal, themovable rack retrieves the product sample from a storage area (notshown) and moves the product within proximity of the customer, andsolicits the customer to interact with the product. The shared interiorspace 104 may include mechanically movable front elements of a kiosk toallow changing product or vendor, based on any criterion, like time ofday, anticipated customer base, or via user request. Rotatable displayscan change the products being demonstrated, or even the vendors beingpresented. Likewise, product samples may be rotated in inventory as wellfor any desired purpose, such as presenting new products, sale products,or products optimized for time day (e.g., to accommodate demographics ofcustomers typically browsing at that particular time of day). Furtherembodiments include automated automatons (e.g. robotically-controlledfixtures) to move product samples from storage locations to withinproximity of customers.

The interaction terminals 110 can include an electronic displayconfigured to illustrate to a customer a plurality of different goods ofthe respective tenant vendor. For example, a single tangible example ofa garment may be provided on-premises within the shared interior space104, but the electronic display may provide illustration of otheravailable sizes, colors, lengths, or materials. Alternatively, a singleitem from a line of items may be tangibly presented on-premises, and theelectronic display may illustrate related items in the line of items.

The electronic display of the interaction terminals 110 may be remotelyreconfigurable. For example, tenant vendors may be permitted to update,refresh, or otherwise modify the electronic display of the interactionterminals 110 from a local server or remote web server such as tenantvendor servers (FIG. 1, 82A-82N). Thus, if some new products becomeavailable, the electronic display can be updated accordingly. Similarly,if the tenant vendors decide to highlight a particular product, thatproduct can be given prominence on the electronic display of aninteraction terminal 110, and control of the ultimate layout of brandsand vendors may be controlled by a remote host server (FIG. 1, 80). Theelectronic display of interaction terminal 110 can also be used forproviding a sales pitch or marketing material, such as video or textadvertisements of goods being offered by a tenant vendor. The electronicdisplay of the interaction terminals 110 may interface to a website,which may be operated by an owner of the system, as distinct from thetenant vendors. The owner's website may then re-route shoppers to thetenant vendors' respective websites.

The shared interior space 104 can be configured to provide amultisensory experience including a tactile experience of the goods.Thus, for example, the sensory experience can include visual, tactile,audio, olfactory, and taste opportunities, depending on the particulargoods being presented by a particular tenant vendor. For example, iffood is being presented, samples of the food may be supplied. In thiscase, the shared interior space 104 may be equipped with a dispenser fordispensing the samples of foodstuffs, candies, snacks, and the like,preferably in hygienic disposable packages that are designed to besafely stored and automatically dispensed by a mechanical apparatus.Samples of other kinds of goods may also be provided. For example,samples of fabric, paper, bedding, clothing, draperies, wallpaper,gloves, and other flexible objects may be presented for tactileinterface by the customer. The product samples may be usable andreplenishable. For example, a maintenance worker or robot may be able torestock the dispenser or counter with product samples, when it isdetected that a current available stock of samples is low or out.

FIG. 6 illustrates a partial interior view of shared interior space 104,within a shared commercial region 100. Interaction terminals 110 may beplaced in any convenient location within the shared interior space 104,and preferably in proximity to display fixtures 405. In one embodiment,a person employed by the host of the shared commercial region 100 (knownin various embodiments as an “Artemis”) possesses a mobile (or,alternatively, fixed) variant of an interaction terminal 110, and maymove within or outside of the shared commercial region 100 to interactwith potential customers. In one aspect of the present invention,customers may require interaction with the Artemis before being grantedaccess to use interaction terminals 110, and the Artemis may grantaccess through any appropriate method, including entry of an access codeby the customer, or remote authorization of a desired interactionterminal 110 that the customer intends to use as initiated from theArtemis' own interaction terminal. Display fixtures 405 may comprise anydesired housing, shelving, or display mechanism to properly market goodsprovided by vendors for customer inspection. While shelves 410 areillustrated in FIG. 6, any type of fixture may be placed within theshared interior space 104, including but not limited to a shelf unit; amovable rack; a locking cabinet with transparent door; a deployableshelf configured to be lowered from a ceiling of the shared commercialregion; a deployable shelf configured to be raised from a floor of theshared commercial region; a deployable drawer configured to slide froman enclosed cabinet; a motor-driven rotatable column display; andcombinations thereof. Thus, the illustration of FIG. 6 is merelyexemplary, and many other configurations may be possible.

FIG. 7A illustrates a plan view of potential layouts of fixtures 405,406, 407, and interaction terminals 110 within the shared commercialregion 400. Interaction terminals 110 may be conveniently placed in anylocation conducive to customers desiring access to information, andpreferably in proximity to fixtures containing goods for inspection. Avariety of fixture types may be used in a single configuration, such asthe detached fixtures 406, the attached shelving 405, centrally locatedtable 407, and optional external sample table 408. Sensors 413 may alsobe located in the shared commercial region 400 such as in the corners,and in central locations such as shown in the top central part of theillustration, depending on the type of data to be gathered by thesensors. If the sensors 413 are cameras, for instance, proper line ofsight coverage may require high placement in multiple locations, butaudio sensors may be placed at lower but more frequent installationlocations in the shared commercial region 400. FIG. 7B illustrates yetanother possible layout of a shared commercial region 401 with sixinteraction terminals 110, shelving fixtures 405, attached walls of theshared commercial region 400, detached fixtures 406 placed in oppositecorners of the shared commercial region 400, and a table with a built-ininteraction terminal 409 located centrally in the shared internal space.Alternate installations may also be implemented, such as vending machine421, which is configured to dispense products which may be ordered byexternal touchscreen 420, and such dispensed products may representsamples or goods for sale. FIGS. 7A and 7B are but two examples of manypossible configurations of placements of internal structures for theshared commercial regions.

FIG. 8 illustrates one implementation of a process flow 11 for thepresent invention, with multiple entry points depending upon customerjourney. Beginning with entry point 53, a customer may enter a localshared commercial region, and use an interaction terminal 110displaying, in one variant, a responsive web-page-based user interface,or in another variant a mobile device 53A with an installed app. Eithervariant may be utilized by a customer to obtain product informationabout products on display in the shared commercial region. In oneembodiment, an interface on the interaction terminal 110 displays a listof brands showcased at that local shared commercial region, and allowsthe customer to select 58 a brand and its associated products forviewing. Once in the brand page 58, an individual product can beselected 60 to obtain more information, and the customer may interactwith the goods corresponding to such products that may be on display inthe shared commercial region. If the customer decides to purchase aproduct 62, various options may be presented as discussed in regard toFIGS. 9 and 10, including point-of-sale transaction, mobile devicepayment, or deferred ordering as discussed in regard to FIG. 10. As analternative entry point in FIG. 8, a customer may utilize an externalaccess method 52, such as viewing the host's website through computer52A, 52B, or through a mobile device 52C. In this instance, the userlands 54 at the master landing page operated by the host. In the masterlanding page, all content is available to the user for all sharedcommercial regions operated by the host, and for all tenant vendors forwhom the host provides marketing services. As before, the user mayprogress from the master landing page 54 to any particular sharedcommercial region, and view products available in a local marketplace56. Likewise, the customer can view a brand or particular tenant vendorpage 58, push down into reviewing individual goods or products 60, andpurchase 62 and arrange for delivery of the products. The user may backout of any level 54 through 62 as desired.

FIG. 9 illustrates one exemplary flow diagram 500 depicting a method ofthe present invention. At step 505, one or more resident tenant vendorsare presented to a customer. Such presentation may entail, for example,a display on interaction terminal 110, summarizing the one or moretenant vendor's offerings in the shared commercial region 100. Thecustomer then selects 515 a tenant vendor for review, whereuponproducts, goods and/or services offered by the tenant vendor arepresented to the customer; in one variant, the presented goods and/orservices offered by the tenant vendor are on display in a sharedcommercial region where the customer is located, but in another variant,when a customer selects a particular tenant vendor for browsing offeredproducts and/or services, those products and/or services may be ondisplay in a different shared commercial region, or, alternatively, noton display at all. In one embodiment, the owner of the shared commercialregion 100 presents the resident tenant vendors in step 505, and theparticular selected tenant vendor presents content to the customer forsteps 520-550. On the interaction terminal 110, the customer ispresented 520 one or more of the selected tenant vendor's products forperusal. It is determined 525 by criteria stored in advance by theselected tenant vendor whether a sample product corresponding to theitem being viewed on the interaction terminal 110 by the customer may beavailable on-premises for interaction with the customer. Suchinteraction may include, for example, viewing the product sample inperson, touching/feeling it, smelling it, listening to it, or otherwisephysically interacting with the sample product in the applicable manner.If the product sample is present on-premises, the customer is prompted540 through, for example, the interaction terminal 110, withinstructions on where in the shared commercial region the on-premisesproduct sample may be found. If no physical product sample is availableon-premises, virtual information about the product may be presented 530on one or more interaction terminals 110, and in one embodiment, in amulti-screen configuration spanning multiple interaction terminals 110,speakers associated with the display terminals 110, and in one optionalembodiment, the panel displays 120. Alternatively, the customer can begiven the option of receiving a product sample via home delivery at alater date, or in another embodiment, requesting that a sample productbe available at the shared commercial region 100 at a future date forin-person inspection. Whether a sample is present on-premises or not,the customer may be presented 550 with options to purchase the productbeing presented. Such options may include, for example, ordering theproduct online directly through the tenant vendor, completing thepurchase transaction through a local purchase portal or checkout counterassociated with the shared commercial region, or being providedinformation such as a web link where the customer may defer the purchaseto a later time or in a more private venue (such as thorough thecustomer's mobile phone). FIG. 10 depicts such an option, where inscreen 605, the customer is being presented options to “BUY NOW” a largewater bottle or to “SEND THIS TO MY PHONE”. If the customer clicks the“SEND THIS TO MY PHONE” button, another screen 610 is displayed on theinteraction terminal 110, prompting the customer for a mobile phonenumber where information to complete the purchase may be sent. In oneembodiment, a text message may be sent to the user's phone withinformation such as a URL encoded to the pending transaction stored bythe tenant vendor, and in another embodiment, an email message with therelevant pending transaction information.

The electronic display of the interaction terminals 110 may provideinformation to customers other than presentation of products for sale;for example, the interaction terminals 110 may permit prior orderaccess. For example, interaction terminals 110 may permit a customer tocheck on the status of an existing order, track shipping for the priororder, to place a new order, or to review an order history.

The system can also include a vending machine configured to provide giftcards corresponding to a plurality of the respective tenants. The giftcards may be ordered directly by customers interacting with theinteraction terminals 110, or through a dedicated interfacecommunicatively coupled to the vending machine.

In various embodiments, there is provided a transaction managementinterface. This interface can permit transaction completion. Theinterface may be configured to process a transaction with a customer,allow pickup in a common area or permit joint marketing fulfillment.Further, the system can be configured to provide a product to acustomer-accessible locker with secure access control, which may be in acommon area, in a nearby area, or in a specified proximity to acustomer's desired location (for instance near the customer's home orplace of business). Alternatively, the system may direct customers to acentral facility, which may allow for order fulfillment in a mannerfaster than delivery to an address.

Referring to FIG. 2, the housing 105 may include exterior displaysand/or backlit signs (collectively, 120), providing vendors or othersmeans to display images of interest to the customers. Columns or pillarmembers 111 of the housing 105 may also include pocket doors toselectively conceal a pullout security curtain, for selective storage ordeployment, as needed. Although not shown in FIG. 2, the housing 105 mayinclude wheels, rollers or the like to enable easy movement of thehousing to a desired location.

Housings 105 may be utilized anywhere in a shopping mall. For example,such housings may be used in common areas of a shopping mall.Alternatively, one could utilize a dedicated and branded shopping mallstore to include a number of such housings within the store, therebycreating a dedicated and branded store to include a number of housings,each of which may offer for interaction with customers the goods of oneor more vendors. Again, this approach may enable vendors to have anontraditional presence in a shopping mall, for example without havingto enter a traditional lease for a store space within a shopping mall.This nontraditional presence may include not only a virtual presencemade possible by the interactive displays on the system housing, butalso a presence including physical product sample offerings.

As mentioned in part above, purchases made at the housings themselvesmay be completed by having a customer go to another area of the mall forproduct pick up. For example, there may be a centralized area in whichall products could be picked up. Alternatively, lockers could be used tostore products, the retrieval of which may be facilitated by providingthe customer at time of purchase with a code to open the lockercontaining the purchased goods. Purchases made may also be delivered bythird-party delivery services, such as Amazon®, FedEx®, or the like.

While embodiments of the present invention have been described herein toenable vendors without a traditional shopping mall presence the abilityto offer their goods within a shopping mall, embodiments of the presentinvention may be used in any other desired circumstances. For example,such housings may be used outside of shopping malls, indeed in anydesired location, a shopping mall, a strip mall, a sporting event or anyother location in which goods may be offered to a customer. Moreover,while embodiments of the present invention have been described tofacilitate establishing a presence into a mall environment for vendorsthat do not typically have a traditional shopping mall presence,embodiments of the present invention may similarly be used with vendorswho already have a traditional shopping mall presence or indeed anyother desired person or entity.

Certain embodiments of the invention may relate to a system and methodfor dynamic marketplace provisioning. Thus, certain embodiments mayrelate to a product merchandising and delivery system. Moreparticularly, certain embodiments may relate to an architecture forremote provisioning, including servers, client interface, hardwaredevice, wireless and wired network configuration, and connection to asystem interface.

There can be remote configuration of the system. For example, theterminals in the system may be remotely configurable by a remotecomputer system using a remote desktop feature or similar remotemanagement tools. Additionally, display space in the system maysimilarly be remotely manageable. For example, servo motors or otherremotely controllable devices may be used to adjust shelves to differentheights, rotate shelves into or out of view, move conveyor belts todifferent positions, or open drawers or cabinets. Additionally,electronic signage and lights can be remotely controlled. For example, ascrolling (mechanical or electrical) sign can be remotely turned on oroff, or speeds of the sign may be altered. An electronic display can beremotely programed to play various videos, slideshows, images, and/ortext. Speakers may be remotely controlled to play various helpful wordsor sounds. Optionally, the speakers may also be remotely controlled toplay entertainment music, or audio accompanying video.

There can be server management. A server maintained by the owner of thesystem can be managed itself and can be used to manage the system. Forexample, a Linux-based or other server may be provided in a data center,at the owner's facility, or locally at the system itself. The server cankeep track of the system. One server can be used to support multipleinstalled systems.

The system can be configured to keep feedback of what consumers or othervisitors interacted with. For example, the system can be configured tokeep feedback of what visitors interacted with electronically, whatvisitors interacted with in person, or any combination thereof. The inperson interactions can include touching, smelling, listening to,looking at, or even tasting, depending on the nature of the product orgood being considered.

The system can have an ability to map purchases to alternativeproviders. For example, a tenant of the system may agree to allowin-mall pickup of a product at another company if the other companyagrees to revenue share. Alternatively, the tenant of the system may bea re-brand of products from existing mall owners to provide an alternatevenue for sales. Thus, in certain cases, the alternative provider mayopaquely be the tenant or a related company to the tenant. In anothercase, the tenant may, for example, be a clothing brand. This clothingbrand may offer customers the option to pick up purchased clothing froma retailer, such as a department store.

Thus, in certain embodiments, the system may prompt a customer who hasconsidered a good to obtain the good from an alternative provider of thegood. This alternative provider may be a competitor with revenuesharing, a retailer or distributor of a brand, or the like. The customermay make a purchase transaction through the system and may receive avoucher that permits the customer to obtain the good at one or morealternative provider, at the option of the customer. The voucher may beprovided electronically through email, short message service (SMS), orthe like, or may be provided in hard form, such as by being printed outfor the customer.

Certain embodiments can model consumer traffic and dynamically changekiosks based on changes to customer base. For example, if older peopleor stay-at-home parents come in at certain hours, the system can changekiosk presentation to cover the intended audiences. The kiosk can thenchange to content oriented at younger people later at night or attheater crowds when shows start or end. Similarly, the kiosk can shutdown or secure itself at the end of the day, and can re-open or unsecureitself at the beginning of the day.

The system can also, in certain embodiments, can change a kiosk based onan individual consumer or set of consumers. For example, if the systemdetects that the consumer is female and dressed in business attire, thesystem may configure the kiosk to display or particularly highlightgoods that are expected to appeal to businesswomen. Likewise, if thesystem detects that a consumer is in a wheelchair, the system can changethe kiosk to enhance its accessibility to people who are in wheelchairs,such as adjusting the height of shelves.

A number of sensors can characterize the environment of the common area.The sensors can include video sensors, motion sensors, and/or audiosensors. Other sensors are also permitted, such temperature sensors,barometric pressure sensors, and humidity sensors. The audio sensors maybe attached to a processor, the processor be configured to analyze theaudio. The analysis of the audio can include analysis of the position ofnoise sources, such as the noise of people's shoes. The analysis of theaudio can also include analysis of voices, including voice recognition.This analysis of audio can be performed alone or in combination withother sensor data, such as in combination with analysis of video.

The system can also include a pattern recognition mechanism that can beconfigured to identify a pattern among shoppers or potential shoppers.The pattern recognition may be used to, for example, assess the generalage of an audience in or near the common area.

The system can also poll consumers using audio, text, or other prompts.For example, the system can use a computer to ask consumers “Did youfind what you needed?” Any other questions or requests for feedback canbe asked. The computer can be equipped with voice recognition to analyzethe answer received.

The system can further ask whether a visitor to the common area consentsto being photographed. The system can present a mock-up of the visitor,for example superimposing clothing, jewelry, or other accessories, suchas glasses, onto the image of the visitor. The image can be a stillimage or a moving video, depending on the superimposition technique.

The system can be configured to ask each visitor for contactinformation, such as a phone number or email address, for furtherfollow-up with the visitor, or to provide the visitor with informationregarding the visit.

The system can dynamically reconfigure display interfaces. The systemcan, for example, have an interface to other sales kiosks in the area.Alternatively, the system can allow a visitor or other user to changethe experience and/or storefront to them. Possibly, the vendor or tenantwhose display is changed may be compensated for this change through arevenue sharing agreement. After the customer is done with thereconfigured storefront, the storefront can return to its previouslyscheduled configuration, such as to its previously assigned vendor. Thisapproach may be useful if a particular vendor is overwhelmed withinterest and other customer stations are under-utilized.

In certain instances, the system can span or bridge several kioskstations, networking them together to enhance the experience in a moreimmersive way. Monetary incentives can be used to convince vendors totolerate this reconfiguration.

In certain embodiments, each of the tenants of a given kiosk may have nophysical store of their own. Thus, certain embodiments may provide aphysical location for brands that do not have their own physical stores.

In certain embodiments, the tenants of a given kiosk may change overtime. For example, the tenants may change every 90 days. Nevertheless,in certain embodiments the electronic databases associated with thekiosk may also include the products of former tenants. Thus, theterminals of the kiosk may be configured to display products fromtenants that no longer have physical products in the kiosk.

In certain embodiments, none of the tenants of the kiosk may have anyemployees in or around the kiosk. Instead, the kiosk may be unmanned, ormay be manned by one or more employee of the owner of the kiosk.

In certain embodiments, an entire catalog of products of each tenant maybe provided through the terminals, even though only a limited selectionof products are available for physical interaction.

In certain embodiments, the terminal may be configured to direct avisitor to a website or app that can be accessed from the visitor'spersonal electronic device, such as a smart phone, laptop, or the like.

Certain embodiments may provide a system and method for agile orderfulfillment. Agile order fulfillment can include various ways ofproviding the product to a buyer. For example, orders can be fulfilledin a variety of traditional or non-traditional ways.

Certain embodiments can have either integrated or separate productfulfillment configurations. For example, in an integrated productfulfillment configuration, the product fulfillment may be orchestratedby a same server that handles the sale of the product. In a separateproduct fulfillment configuration, the product fulfillment may begoverned by a different server from the server used for the productsale. Optionally, a different company may handle delivery distinct fromsale.

Certain embodiments permit a customer to place orders at a virtualstorefront and then pick up merchandise at a locker or will-callfacility or defer to shipment. For example, in the case of picking upthe merchandise from a locker, the customer can ask for the product tobe delivered to a locker facility. The locker facility can be owned by athird party or by the vendor selling the product. Similarly, thewill-call facility can be owned by a third party or by the vendorselling the product. The location of the locker facility or will-callfacility may be selected by the customer or may be automaticallyselected by the system based on, for example, a billing address of thecustomer. If the defer to shipment option is selected, the shipment maybe made directly from a warehouse, factory, or other facility of thevendor or from a third party facility.

One alternative vending mechanism is for a gift card to be issued. Forexample, the kiosk itself could issue a physical gift card, or a virtualor electronic gift card could be delivered to a customer in accordancewith a sale obtained via the kiosk. The gift card could be delivered byshort message service (SMS), by e-mail, or by any other desired.Optionally, a physical gift card could be mailed to the customer. Thegift card could be for a specific product or set of products, or for aspecific amount of money.

Modules may be delivered and picked up with products pre-loaded, and asmodule inventory becomes depleted, a re-provisioning request can be sentto the vendor through the network connection. For example, a module maybe a combination of goods from one or more manufacturers. Thecombination may be based on recent levels of demand or interestexpressed by consumers at kiosks or via an online portal.

Certain embodiments can interface to an online retailer or a lockersystem for the online retailer. The interface may permit the system toquery the online retailer or locker system and inquire whether a lockeris available for delivery of the goods. The modules mentioned above maybe provided in advance to the locker facility, to permit rapid stockingof a designated locker. In certain cases, popular items may bepre-stocked into lockers for instant availability to consumers.

Alternative fulfillment and dynamically reconfigurable fulfillmentschemes can be based on inventory, product pricing, and revenue shareagreements. As mentioned above, in some cases an alternative product canbe offered instead of a customer-selected product, with a revenuesharing arrangement existing between the provider of thecustomer-selected product and the provider of the alternative product.

Drone delivery systems can be employed. These systems can provide fordelivery of product via drone. The system can synchronize to a user'sdevice for endpoint verification of the user's identity. The drones canbe ground-based with an autonomous ground vehicle or airborne with anautonomous or human-controlled airborne vehicle. Another alternative isto have the delivery be based on a taxi system. The taxi may becontrolled autonomously, by an android robot, or locally or remotely bya human being. Certain embodiments of the invention may be implementedwith computer-executable instructions. The computer-executableinstructions may be organized into one or more computer-executablecomponents or modules. Aspects of the invention may be implemented withany number and organization of such components or modules. For example,aspects of the invention are not limited to the specificcomputer-executable instructions or the specific components or modulesillustrated in the figures and described herein. Other embodiments ofthe invention may include different computer-executable instructions orcomponents having more or less functionality than illustrated anddescribed herein.

One having ordinary skill in the art will readily understand that theinvention as discussed above may be practiced with steps in a differentorder, and/or with hardware elements in configurations which aredifferent than those which are disclosed. Therefore, although theinvention has been described based upon these preferred embodiments, itwould be apparent to those of skill in the art that certainmodifications, variations, and alternative constructions would beapparent, while remaining within the spirit and scope of the invention.

I claim:
 1. A system, comprising: a communication gateway within ashared commercial region, the gateway communicatively coupled to a localnetwork and at least one host server, the host server providing aninterface for presenting information relating to one or more tenantvendors of the shared commercial region; a plurality of interactionterminals communicatively coupled to the communication gateway throughthe local network, each of the plurality of terminals configured toallow interaction with one or more websites hosted by at least one ofthe tenant vendors of the shared commercial region, wherein: at leastone electronic display of the plurality of interaction terminals isremotely reconfigurable by at least one of the tenant vendors via a webserver, at least one layout of the at least one electronic display iscontrolled by at least one remote host server in communication with theweb server, and the plurality of interaction terminals are configured tointerface with a website operated by an entity distinct from the one ormore tenant vendors and configured to re-route to at least one websiteoperated by the one or more tenant vendors; said system furthercomprising a common area of the shared commercial region, wherein: thecommon area is configured to permit pedestrian travel among theplurality of interaction terminals; and the common area is configured topresent one or more physical representations of goods offered by avendor tenant, the one or more physical representations located withinthe shared commercial space; wherein each of the interaction terminalsis configured to: present product information from a selected tenantvendor; and invite a customer to interact with the one or more physicalrepresentations of goods corresponding to the selected tenant vendor'sproduct information; and a server configured to provide for delivery ofthe goods upon selection of the goods for purchase by a customer.
 2. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the interaction terminals further comprise: auser interface comprising a display, a speaker, and user input device,the user input device comprising one or more of a touch screen, a mouse,a camera, a touch tablet, one or more buttons, a microphone, and NFCcomponent, an RFID component, and a keyboard; and a processor coupled tothe user interface, a device communication interface coupled to thelocal network, and a memory.
 3. The system of claim 2, wherein thememory is configured to store instructions that when executed by theprocessor, perform the functions of: receiving, through the devicecommunication interface, product information provided by one or more ofthe tenant vendors; displaying, through the user interface, the productinformation corresponding to goods offered by the selected tenantvendor; and prompting the customer to select a product offered by theselected tenant vendor.
 4. The system of claim 3, wherein the memory isconfigured to store instructions that when executed by the processor,perform the functions of: determining, from an indicia provided by thehost server, that a physical representation of the goods offered by theselected tenant vendor are available for inspection by the customer inthe shared commercial region; and providing instructions regardinglocation of the goods offered by the selected tenant vendor in theshared commercial region.
 5. The system of claim 2, wherein the memoryis configured to store instructions that when executed by the processor,perform the functions of: prompting the customer to enter a productidentifier corresponding to goods located within the shared commercialspace; and displaying, through the user interface, product informationcorresponding to goods offered by the selected tenant vendor.
 6. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the communications gateway comprises one ormore of a router or a switch communicatively connected to an externalnetwork and the local network.
 7. The system of claim 6, wherein: one ormore tenant vendor servers are communicatively coupled to thecommunications gateway through the external network; and the productinformation corresponding to goods offered by the selected tenant vendorare provided to the interaction terminals though the communicationsgateway.
 8. The system of claim 1, wherein an interior space of theshared commercial region comprises a display fixture configured todisplay one or more goods corresponding to a tenant vendor.
 9. Thesystem of claim 8, wherein the display fixture is configured to exhibitgoods through one or more of: a shelf unit; a movable rack; a lockingcabinet with transparent door; a deployable shelf configured to belowered from a ceiling of the shared commercial region; a deployableshelf configured to be raised from a floor of the shared commercialregion; a deployable drawer configured to slide from an enclosedcabinet; a motor-driven rotatable column display; and combinationsthereof.
 10. The system of claim 8, wherein a visual indicia is providedin proximity to goods displayed on the display fixture, the indiciacomprising one of: a descriptive text label, identifying a name of thegoods and a product number corresponding to a product number for theassociated tenant vendor; a scanable RFID tag containing a uniqueidentifier for the displayed goods; an NFC tag containing a uniqueidentifier for the displayed goods; a QR code encoded with a websitelink corresponding to a product information page for the goods providedby the associated tenant vendor; a controllable lighting element coupledto a lighting controller, the lighting controller coupled to the localnetwork, wherein the lighting element is illuminated by the lightingcontroller when a corresponding product information page is selected onan interaction terminal by a customer; and a button coupled to the localnetwork, wherein upon a customer actuating the button a correspondingproduct information page is displayed on one of the interactionterminals.
 11. The system of claim 8, wherein the visual indiciaincludes a colored highlight being displayed on the display terminal inproximity to the product being displayed and a colored light beingilluminated in proximity to the goods on display.
 12. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the host server further comprises a processor, a memorycommunicatively coupled to the processor, a database communicativelycoupled to the processor, and a communication interface coupled to theprocessor and to the communication gateway of the shared commercialregion through an external network; and wherein: the database of thehost server is configured to store: an inventory of goods correspondingto a selected tenant vendor; a location where the goods may be foundwithin a particular shared commercial region; and a linking identifieruniquely associating the goods with respective product information fromthe respective corresponding tenant vendors.
 13. The system of claim 12,further comprising a second shared commercial region, communicativelycoupled to the host server through a second communications gateway, andwherein: the host server maintains, in host server database, ageographically-oriented list of goods available by the tenant vendors ina particular shared commercial region; and upon being queried aboutavailability of goods, provides an indicia of where such goods may beavailable for inspection by a customer.
 14. The system of claim 1,further comprising: accepting input by a customer through one of theinteraction terminals comprising a request to purchase the goods; anddirecting the customer to a tenant vendor's website order processingwebpage hosted by a tenant vendor server coupled to the sharedcommercial region through an external network; whereupon the customermay complete a transaction to purchase the goods through the tenantvendor's website.
 15. The system of claim 1, further comprising:accepting input by a customer through one of the interaction terminalscomprising a request to purchase the goods; prompting the customer toenter one of an email address or a phone number corresponding to thecustomer's mobile device; and sending a deferred purchase link to one ofthe customer's email address or mobile phone.
 16. The system of claim 1,further comprising one or more sensors comprising at least one of adigital camera and a microphone.
 17. The system of claim 1, wherein theshared commercial region is located in one of: a store area of a mall orshopping center; within a large retail store; and within a portable anddeployable vehicle.